Dog Urine and Crazy Repair Bill - What to do?

[Rob Forest]

On my recent inspection of one of my units there was an insane stench of dog urine on the floors. A previously decent tenant had just let his dog have his way with the place. It's likely a serious health issue. He even replaced all the carpet himself and it had zero effect. Got a quote from a disaster restoration company and it came in at $16,000. You read that right. Quite a bill for a unit that rents for $700 a month.

I can end the month to month lease and insist the tenant pay the cleanup bill, but they will likely just skip town and I'll never see them again. I don't mind going through small claims to garnish wages, but the limit is $5k here.

Do I have any other options? Thanks for any advice.

[Pat L.]

Wee let 'peeing dogs lie'.

We had a similar tenant C-class SFR & we had to literally remove the old oak hardwood flooring. It was buckling up from being soaked so long that she reported it as a "trip hazard" under the shredded carpet.

Once removed it eliminated most of the odor so we let her stay & raised the rent, figured who else would want to live there. We put down OSB & cheap carpet over it. 

That was 8 years ago, dog is gone but she's still there paying on-time including all her utilities, even through the Covid debacle. We did however sell the place to a friend who requested it contract-for-deed about 5 years ago & he likes the tenant, 'one of my best'!!!